Enameled or patent leather.



PATENTED JULY 26, 1904.

W. E. SMITH.

ENAMELED OR. PATENT LEATHER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 6. 1903.

N0 MODEL.

INVENTUR:

VVITNVISEEE:

UNITED STATES Patented .Iuly 2 6 1904.

PATENT OEEIcE.

WILLIAM B. SMITH, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JOHN D. LARKIN, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

ENAMELED OR PATENT LEATHER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 765,685, dated July 26, 1904.

Application filed June 6, 1903. Serial No. 160,349. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM B. SMITH, of Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Enameled orPatent Leather, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to enameled or socalled patent leather, which is produced by applying to one side of a piece of leather a coating composed of a baking enamel, which upon being subjected continuously to a bak ing heat is hardened and made permanent and presents the glossy surface which is a familiar characteristic of patent-leather. The leather before being coated is treated and finished in the usual way to insure its strength, pliability, and non-absorptiveness, or, in other words, its freedom from liability to absorb moisture, the treatment including the filling of the body of the leather with oil or an oleaginous composition, the continued presence of which in the leather is necessary to the retention of the characteristics above enumerated. Heretofore the operation of baking or curing the enamel coating has been conducted in such manner that the baking heat has access to practically all parts of the leather, the result being the removal of all or practically all of the oil and other preservative ingredients contained in the leather, leaving the leather relatively brittle, lacking in tensile strength, and absorptive. When the finished leather is used as a part of a boot or shoe, the absorptiveness of the leather permits moisture from the foot to penetrate the leather, and after such penetration and after the drying of the leather it is found that the leather becomes extremely brittle and liable to crack upon the slightest fiexure. This liability is a great source of annoyance and expense, particularly to boot and shoe manufacturers.

My invention has for its object to provide as an article of manufacture enameled or patent leather which shall be free from the objections above noted and shall be characterized and distinguished from the ordinary patentleather of commerce chiefly by its relative strength, pliability, and non-absorptiveness.

My invention consists in the improved enternal means for circulating the air.

ameled or patent leather produced as hereinafter described.

Of the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a perspective view of an appliance used in producing my improved patent-leather. Fig. 2 represents a section on line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 represents a sectional view showing a modification of the device represented in Figs. 1 and 2.

In the drawings, a represents a sheet or piece of leather to one side of which is applied a coating of any of the usual compositions employed in the manufacture of patent-leather, the composition being hereinafter referred to as a baking enamel, the same being adapted to be fixed and rendered durable and glossy by heat. In carrying out my invention I place the back or uncoated side of the leather in contact with a protecting-bed which is adapted to prevent injurious action of the heat upon the leather.

In Figs. 1 and 2 I show a bed composed of a hollow chamber having means for the admission and exit of a current of air and in- 6 represents the chamber, which has an air-inlet pipe 0, an air-outlet pipe cl, and semipartitions or bafiie-plates e e 6 arranged to cause the air to pass in a sinuous course through the chamber, as indicated by arrows in Fig. 1, which shows a part of the chamber broken away. The sheet a of leather is placed upon the top of the chamber and may be suitably secured thereto by suitable means, such as by cords ff, engaging with hooks or studs g g, afiiixed to the top of the chamber. The chamber 6 is to be inserted in the vulcanizing or curing oven, the latter having provisions for the projection of the air-pipes c and (Z outside of the oven, so that the current of cool air may be forced through the chamber through the pipe 0, the air heating the chamber escaping from the oven through the pipe d. I find that coated leather subjected to heat while supported by the top in the chamber b is not injured to any appreciable extent by the heat.

In Fig. 3 I show a bed composed of a sheet b of asbestos supported by a suitable rigid base or holder 5 This bed is to be inserted in the oven with the sheet of leather placed upon the asbestos, the latter preventing the heat from being conducted to the under surface of the leather.

The body or leather portion of the completed article thus produced retains practically all the qualities of the leather as it existed before the coating was baked, the leather part of the finished article being characterized and distinguished from patent-leather as heretofore produced by its relative strength, pliability, and non-absorptiveness and also by its greater weight, due to the presence of the oily filling, and by the retention of the color peculiar to leather which is provided with the said filling.

I do not claim herein that improvement in the art or process of producing enameled or patent leather which consists in protecting the body or leather portion of the piece from heat while the coating is being baked, the same being claimed in my application for Letters Patent, filed November 1, 1902, Serial No. 129,659.

I claim" As an article of manufacture, enameled or patent leather having a coating of enamel cured or hardened by a baking heat, While the body of the leather is protected from the deleterious action of the heat, whereby the original condition of the leather, as prepared for the coating, is retained, the finished leather being characterized and distinguished from the ordinary patent-leather of commerce by its relative strength, pliability, and non-absorptiveness.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

-WILLIA M R. SMITH.

Witnesses:

THOMAS H. NOONAN, MILLARD F. BOWEN. 

